It's so new, we're still playing with the bubble wrap!

I thought I would take a moment to share some of my experiences about using the Iowa DOT Real Time Network on the autopilot in my tractor this spring. For those of you that don't know, the Iowa DOT put up a network of RTK base stations so that it covers the entire state with network RTK corrections available on the internet. They are providing these corrections free of charge, but you still have to be able to access the internet from the cab of your tractor. That is where the expense comes in. Anyhow, on to the operation of it.

Last Friday the network was down, so we were out of luck for most of the day if you wanted to use this network. Sunday evening I got some new updates loaded and got everything connected, but didn't make it to the field. Sitting in the yard everything appeared to look pretty good though. Yesterday, I finally made it to the field with the unit to plant, and started on a 80 acre field. Things were off to a good start as I started planting the first pass around the field, but about one third of the way around the field on the first pass I lost corrections for the first time. I sat and waited about 5 minutes or so, and finally got reconnected to the network. This process continued for the next few hours, planting and waiting, planting and waiting. I was able to accomplish about 16 acres over the course of 3 hours or so, and I am running a 16 row planter. Definitely wasn't setting any land speed records yesterday! All in all, the performance was quite good running the system when it worked, but I unfortunately spent way too much time sitting and waiting for the RTK to lock in. I think we are making headway on this, but we are still a ways from having all the bugs worked out. Like I was saying, this stuff is extremely new, and although it appears as though it will be a great technology to work with in the future, we still have a few bugs to work out of it.

Leap Seconds

Everyone has heard of Leap Year, where we have an extra day in the calendar to keep time in sync. Did you know there are also leap seconds that are introduced at half year intervals? Leap seconds are introduced to correct time according to the earth's rotation, which is not exact from year to year, and has been on an ever so slightly slowing trend for a while.

Why is this important? GPS actually uses a very accurate time measurement that is embedded in the messages from the satelites to the receivers we use. This allows for many different things to happen, one of them being that you get a more accurate position because of the accurate time measurement from each satelite to the rover, and how long the message took to get from one to the other, therefore measuring distance.

The reason I bring this up now, is that the end of this month (December 2008) there will be a leap second added to the clock. In the past this has caused some difficulties with certain GPS units, as the time measurement didn't match what it was supposed to, and they required an update to correct the problem. I am not aware of any potential problems with GPS from this, as we just added a leap second in 2005 and that was when a few of these problems surfaced. Prior to 2005, there hadn't been a second added since 1998.

Ag Leader Announces new Display

In case you haven't already heard, Ag Leader announced the Edge display, replacing the long running PF series monitors. This new monitor uses the same CAN BUS technology as the Insight, and even uses the same wiring harnesses to allow for these two to be interchangeable. The Edge is a smaller version of the Insight, with some limited functionality, but also at a lower price point, allowing for a lower initial investment and still offering the ability to upgrade without changing harnesses later if you desire.

This is a great point to enter the market for someone starting with nothing. Feel free to post comments or questions about this display - I would like to get a conversation started about it.

Combines are rolling!

Well, here we are at the end of September and the combines are just getting rolling. What a strange year for weather! Since we are finally getting to the field, I thought I would take a moment to remind everyone of some tips and calibration hints to get the best data possible out of your yield monitor.

1. Make sure you have the right grain type set for the field you are harvesting. Over and over again I see people harvesting soybeans and their monitor is set to corn. This data can't be saved.
2. Check to see the monitor is giving you "believeable" readings. Things as simple as incorrect ground speed or too many or too few acres counting are signs of a real problem that needs fixed.
3. Calibrate in this order: Temperature, Moisture, Weight.
4. When calibrating moisture, make a new load and calibrate from a small load. This will allow for less averaging and get you better results.
5. Weight calibrations should not be done with truck loads of grain. Follow these rules: All loads should be around 3000 lbs, each load should be a consistant speed for the whole load, but each load should be a different speed (or flow rate). Run one load at the slowest speed your machine will ever run, then run one at the fastest speed that your machine will run. Finally stagger two more loads between these two extremes, and you will have your 4 calibration loads to get great results.
6. Calibrations need to be done for each grain type.
7. Calibrations should be completed each year, even if the monitor was accurate last year.

Follow these guidelines, and you will have one of the best calibrations you have ever seen on your monitor, not to mention avoid frustrations of finding out a problem after it is too late to correct.

SeedCommand payback increasing???

I just got back from a seed technology day, and heard rumblings of seed corn costing $300+ per bag for 2009. They had a good explaination for this, as the technology is becoming better and better, keeping us from needing to spray for certain insects, etc., but it made me think right away about how much additional money the SeedCommand system on my planter is going to save me next year! HTS now has over 150 planters running with this technology, and I have heard over and over again, 7% savings on average. I have heard the range from 5% to 15%.
That being said, lets do some math: Assuming a 2000 acre farmer plants half his acres to corn, that would be over $100,000 in seed just for the corn. That means that by saving 7% you would save $7,000 per year just on corn seed. This doesn't even count the increase in yield we have seen by not overplanting the end rows. To me, this is a no brainer. This is technology we can't afford to farm without.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

In the middle of this rainy evening, I was reading the latest issue of Progressive Farmer and found an article to be quite interesting. It was titled "No Quick Fix to Fertilizer Prices".

I'm not going to get very deep into the article, as the title basically sums up the point I want to make.

As almost all input prices soar, we need to look to technology as a tool to help save some money. Automatic shutoffs have made a huge splash in the marketplace, from planters to sprayers to fertilizer applicators including NH3 and dry spreaders, not to mention strip till applications.

The concept here is simple - reduce overlap of product being applied by using GPS position to accurately turn on and shut off sections of large equipment instead of trying to do it all with one shutoff.

This alone can add up to huge savings. Hands down, this is the fastest return on investment most people have seen so far in precision ag. But why does it have to stop there?

Prior to this technology many people have used precision ag for variable rate fertilizer or lime, and in fields with changing landscape or soils this also adds up to big savings.

Here is something simple that many haven't thought of. For those of you spreading variable rate dry fertilizer, you can quickly squeeze a few more dollars out of each acre.

Often there is some nitrogen credit from the dry fertilizer being spread, and by using simple math we can cut back the amount of NH3 or other nitrogen source being applied by allowing for a credit in areas where higher rates of the dry fertilizer were spread.

I ran the numbers on this for a couple of fields, and this simple math averaged out to about $10 per acre saved in nitrogen. This only took a few minutes to create the prescription maps, and can be done with precision ag equipment that many already have.

Lets Get Started!

Let me start by telling you a bit about myself. I have worked in the precision ag industry for nearly 8 years now as a combination of a technical support technician for Ag Leader Technology, and also as a precision ag consultant for Heartland Technology Solutions, or HTS for short. That is where I currently work, in addition to farming with my uncle in southwest Iowa using a wide variety of precision ag equipment in our operation.

HTS is one of the largest Ag Leader Master Service Dealers in the United States, and we are also a Trimble reseller, and one of the largest Garmin distributers to the Ag industry. We also offer GPS solutions for nearly every type of combine sold in the US today.

So what is Precision Ag? That's a good question.
Wikipedia explains it as follows:

Precision farming or precision agriculture is an agricultural concept relying on the existence of in-field variability. It's about doing the right thing, in the right place, in the right way, at the right time. It requires the use of new technologies, such as global positioning (GPS), sensors, satellites or aerial images, and information management tools (GIS) to assess and understand variations. Collected information may be used to more precisely evaluate optimum sowing density, estimate fertilizers and other inputs needs, and to more accurately predict crop yields. It seeks to avoid applying inflexible practices to a crop, regardless of local soil/climate conditions, and may help to better assess local situations of disease or lodging.